Comets fall to conference foe Athens

Wednesday

Dec 12, 2012 at 10:30 AM

By Andy Barrand

andy.barrand@hillsdale.net JONESVILLE — The Jonesville girls basketball team faced off against Big Eight Conference foe Athens Tuesday night in a hard fought, physical game. The Comets came out on the losing end of the scoreboard though falling 61-51. With the loss, the Comets fall to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the Big Eight Conference. Jonesville coach Tom Dunn said things don’t get any easier for his team as they prepare to take on Homer Friday night at home. “We need to take better care of the ball,” Dunn said. “We also need to shore up our defense.” Jonesville came out in the first quarter slow and found themselves down 10 points early before they clawed their way back into the game. At the end of the first quarter they trailed by six, at 17-11. At the half the Comets inched yet closer only being down by four at 29-25. Dunn said, his team put in a good effort, despite the loss. “We wanted to speed up the tempo because we knew we weren’t well in the half court game,” he said. Jonesville senior Olivia Newell led the way for the Comets scoring 16 points with 10 of those coming in the second half. Newell helped her team take its first lead of the game with 5:15 left in the third quarter. Athens traded baskets with Jonesville before going on a 7-0 run to gain back control of the game. Jonesville battled Athens pressure defense as the Comets worked to bring the ball up the court. “We had one bad run, allowing them to get a couple of easy lay-ups in the fourth quarter” Dunn said. The Comets shot 35 percent from the field for the game and 70 percent from the line. The only other player in double figures was Kalie Spencer with 11. Athens was led by senior Chantel Davenport with 16. Allison Fuller and Allysha Beal also scored in double figures with 15 and 13.